Frustration of the Vets (aka Ragefest 200)
Fat_Man_Little_Coat
Join Date: 2003-12-02 Member: 23857Members
Join Date: 2003-12-02 Member: 23857Members
I want to state, with little doubt or question, that I have a deep, loyal passion to this game. My experience lately has been that the older players feel a frustration that comes from a fear that the changes implemented are to cater to a newer community of players, who, for whatever reason, may not understand the game in the same manner they do.
This fear may be completely unfounded, or have some reason to it, either way, I don't think beta is the best time to make that call, largely because balancing a game is probably one of the hardest parts of any game.
I was talking to someone about this, and they're currently in Beta for DOTA2 which also mirrors our community in the sense that it has a dedicated community, one that revolves around a game that is unforgiving to newer players pitted against veteran players. He was telling me that Valve has been working on a few things to resolve this issue that doesn't affect the gameplay,namely a ladder system, which is great, and would love to see that for NS2 but don't know how feasible that is.
But also he mentioned a mentoring and reward system. Where a person can literally watch a new player, with the same view, as he plays and coach him through a game. And that player being coached can give that player what is essentially an upvote in the community which may result in rewards (mostly cosmetic). Along with that, we discussed Blizzards solution to the issue of new players, which is a robust replay system, which DOTA2 has as well. Being able to watch replays has been essential to newer players in SC2, and because of an easy to access file sharing system they can easily upload games they've played and share them to educate others.
Essentially, I know these ideas being implemented into NS2 is slim, but it does show a solution to the problem is not necessarily gameplay, but in the community itself. There are a lot of new players out there, and I have raged plenty of times, but when I realize they're just new players, and play like it, the game goes surprisingly well, and I gain new friends as a result as well. As opposed to when I rage, where I look like a huge ass.
In summary, I was wondering if there was a possibility of more tools being able to be developed to help the community coach newer players? Perhaps rewards (like special armor similar to those who bought the alpha) that would encourage veteran players to coach newer ones interested in learning how to com, maybe even an option on the menu screen leading people to specialized servers with a mod allowing a person to coach people in the chair while playing. Maybe the modding community can address this idea?
Again, I know it's a shot in the dark, but I enjoy this community a ton, and I see the frustration and relate to the frustration of the veteran players. I have full confidence in the developers vision of this game, but at the same time, I know that a few tools that wouldn't even directly affect gameplay would be a boost for newer players and the community as a whole.
tl,dr: Tools that would help us educate new players without affecting the gameplay mechanics, good idea?
This fear may be completely unfounded, or have some reason to it, either way, I don't think beta is the best time to make that call, largely because balancing a game is probably one of the hardest parts of any game.
I was talking to someone about this, and they're currently in Beta for DOTA2 which also mirrors our community in the sense that it has a dedicated community, one that revolves around a game that is unforgiving to newer players pitted against veteran players. He was telling me that Valve has been working on a few things to resolve this issue that doesn't affect the gameplay,namely a ladder system, which is great, and would love to see that for NS2 but don't know how feasible that is.
But also he mentioned a mentoring and reward system. Where a person can literally watch a new player, with the same view, as he plays and coach him through a game. And that player being coached can give that player what is essentially an upvote in the community which may result in rewards (mostly cosmetic). Along with that, we discussed Blizzards solution to the issue of new players, which is a robust replay system, which DOTA2 has as well. Being able to watch replays has been essential to newer players in SC2, and because of an easy to access file sharing system they can easily upload games they've played and share them to educate others.
Essentially, I know these ideas being implemented into NS2 is slim, but it does show a solution to the problem is not necessarily gameplay, but in the community itself. There are a lot of new players out there, and I have raged plenty of times, but when I realize they're just new players, and play like it, the game goes surprisingly well, and I gain new friends as a result as well. As opposed to when I rage, where I look like a huge ass.
In summary, I was wondering if there was a possibility of more tools being able to be developed to help the community coach newer players? Perhaps rewards (like special armor similar to those who bought the alpha) that would encourage veteran players to coach newer ones interested in learning how to com, maybe even an option on the menu screen leading people to specialized servers with a mod allowing a person to coach people in the chair while playing. Maybe the modding community can address this idea?
Again, I know it's a shot in the dark, but I enjoy this community a ton, and I see the frustration and relate to the frustration of the veteran players. I have full confidence in the developers vision of this game, but at the same time, I know that a few tools that wouldn't even directly affect gameplay would be a boost for newer players and the community as a whole.
tl,dr: Tools that would help us educate new players without affecting the gameplay mechanics, good idea?
Comments
The replay system in SC2 (with the analogue of demos in TF2/quake/whatever) would be great in NS2. Demos along with streams and shoutcasters should provide a good setup for educating new players. I don't see why people need to get a cookie for helping somebody in a video game, though. If you want a good example of how effective you can be with just using the standard demo tools in TF2, the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSmkUmPVqA8" target="_blank">My Gaming Edge</a> videos are a good example.
This fear may be completely unfounded, or have some reason to it, either way, I don't think beta is the best time to make that call, largely because balancing a game is probably one of the hardest parts of any game.
I was talking to someone about this, and they're currently in Beta for DOTA2 which also mirrors our community in the sense that it has a dedicated community, one that revolves around a game that is unforgiving to newer players pitted against veteran players. He was telling me that Valve has been working on a few things to resolve this issue that doesn't affect the gameplay,namely a ladder system, which is great, and would love to see that for NS2 but don't know how feasible that is.
But also he mentioned a mentoring and reward system. Where a person can literally watch a new player, with the same view, as he plays and coach him through a game. And that player being coached can give that player what is essentially an upvote in the community which may result in rewards (mostly cosmetic). Along with that, we discussed Blizzards solution to the issue of new players, which is a robust replay system, which DOTA2 has as well. Being able to watch replays has been essential to newer players in SC2, and because of an easy to access file sharing system they can easily upload games they've played and share them to educate others.
Essentially, I know these ideas being implemented into NS2 is slim, but it does show a solution to the problem is not necessarily gameplay, but in the community itself. There are a lot of new players out there, and I have raged plenty of times, but when I realize they're just new players, and play like it, the game goes surprisingly well, and I gain new friends as a result as well. As opposed to when I rage, where I look like a huge ass.
In summary, I was wondering if there was a possibility of more tools being able to be developed to help the community coach newer players? Perhaps rewards (like special armor similar to those who bought the alpha) that would encourage veteran players to coach newer ones interested in learning how to com, maybe even an option on the menu screen leading people to specialized servers with a mod allowing a person to coach people in the chair while playing. Maybe the modding community can address this idea?
Again, I know it's a shot in the dark, but I enjoy this community a ton, and I see the frustration and relate to the frustration of the veteran players. I have full confidence in the developers vision of this game, but at the same time, I know that a few tools that wouldn't even directly affect gameplay would be a boost for newer players and the community as a whole.
tl,dr: Tools that would help us educate new players without affecting the gameplay mechanics, good idea?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
*clap* Listen to vets and I like the coaching part.